Jean-Luc Marion studies both the history of modern philosophy and contemporary phenomenology. In the former field, he has published several books on Descartes' ontology, rational theology, and metaphysics, focusing especially on medieval sources and using modern patterns of interpretation (e.g., On Descartes' Metaphysical Prism, Cartesian Questions, and On the Ego and on God: Further Cartesian Questions). In the latter field, he is pursuing a long-term inquiry into the question of God, as in The Idol and Distance and God Without Being. Finally, he initiated a phenomenology of givenness in Reduction and Givenness, which was further developed in Being Given: An Essay on the Phenomenology of Givenness and In Excess: Studies on Saturated Phenomena, and in The Erotic Phenomenon. In a more theological style, he has recently published Au lieu de soi. L’approche de saint Augustin (first edition, 2008; second edition, 2009; English translation 2012). He is currently working on a last study devoted to deconstructing the myth of Cartesian dualism, Sur la pensée passive de Descartes.

Professor Marion has also worked in the areas of Greek and Latin patristics; the history of medieval and modern philosophy; aesthetics; and constructive theology. He is now working on the issue of Revelation.

Marion has been awarded the Grand Prix du Philosophie de l’Académie Française, the 2008 Karl-Jaspers Prize of the city and University of Heidelberg, Germany (2008), and the Humboldt-Stiftung Prize (2012). He was elected to l'Academie francaise in 2008 and received as an immortel (member) in 2010. In 2009 he was elected to the Academia dei Lincei (Rome). He will give the Gifford Lectures in coming years.